Burt Reynolds' 1962 photo shoot for "Gunsmoke" — shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch (Is Burt Reynolds left-handed?)

Burt Reynolds on the Iverson Movie Ranch, 1962

I was surprised recently to spot promotional photos of film icon Burt Reynolds that were taken at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif. At the time I ran across these, I hadn't heard about Reynolds doing any work on the famous location ranch — although I have since spotted him in at least one earlier production filmed on the Lower Iverson, which will be the subject of an upcoming post.

Burt Reynolds, photo shoot for "Gunsmoke," 1962

The photo shoot was done in connection with the long-running TV Western "Gunsmoke." The above two shots are the only ones I've been able to find in color, and these appear to be the main ones released from the shoot. But a few black-and-white shots are also in circulation, and I've included some of those below. The shoot took place on the Upper Iverson at the Fury Set, a ranch set that was built around 1955 for the TV show "Fury." The set included the barn and house seen in the above shots, along with a corral and a small cabin.

One quirk I noticed about the "Gunsmoke" photo shoot is that one of the two photos above is horizontally flipped — in effect creating a mirror image of the actual shot. One of the easiest ways to tell something's wrong is by comparing Burt's hair in the two photos above. Other clues include the wristband, which appears to switch arms, and the orientation of the gun in the two shots. It took a little detective work to figure out which photo is properly oriented and which is flipped, but after studying the backgrounds I was able to determine that the barn shot is the one that's reversed. As a bonus, it also dawned on me in the process that the barn shot was taken looking south, showcasing the rarely seen north end of the barn. (It looks about the same as the much more commonly seen south end.)

The barn shot should really look like this:

Burt Reynolds promo shot, with correct orientation

In the background is Cactus Hill — the hill that divided Upper Iverson and Lower Iverson, which is still in place, just north of the 118 Freeway, and now has a couple of water tanks sitting on top of it.

Here's another shot from the same sequence — I tend to think of this one as an outtake. But the fact that it circulates in this orientation lends a little bit of support to what we already knew: that the barn shot near the top of this blog post is flipped. This shot also reveals more of Cactus Hill in the background, which was helpful in nailing down the location of the photo shoot.

Billy the Kid — circa 1879: left-handed or right-handed?

One tidbit I took away from this research is that Burt must be left-handed, at least when it comes to shooting a gun — or else he decided to play the character left-handed for some reason. I haven't been able to verify whether Reynolds is in fact left-handed or not, but it's an issue of some importance when it comes to the Wild West. As an example, the "handedness" of Billy the Kid was debated for almost 100 years, in part because of the above photo.

Billy the Kid — properly oriented

Billy the Kid — born William Henry McCarty Jr. — was eventually determined to be right-handed, and the original ferrotype photo, thought for more than a century to be the only surviving image of the outlaw, was determined to be a mirror image. In its proper orientation, shown above, Billy holds a Winchester carbine in his left hand, but his six-shooter is strapped to his right side. So even though Billy the Kid and Burt Reynolds don't share the trait of being left-handed, they do share the experience of having a "promotional" photo flipped horizontally.

Paul Newman as Billy the Kid in "The Left Handed Gun" (1958)

The legend of Billy the Kid as a left-handed gunslinger was so entrenched in modern culture that his story was told in a 1958 feature film titled "The Left Handed Gun," with Paul Newman portraying Billy in all his mythical left-handed glory.

A comic book version also appeared. I found it interesting that the original photo was tilted slightly to create a better composition for the comic book cover.

Burt Reynolds on the Fury Set at Iverson

Burt Reynolds' time on "Gunsmoke" is a relatively overlooked chapter of his career, but he had a pretty good run on the show playing Quint, a half-Comanche blacksmith, from 1962-1965. Reynolds played the character in about 50 episodes, and the exposure helped jump-start his career. He had been kicking around TV, mostly in one-off roles, since about 1959, but his movie career had yet to take off. Right after "Gunsmoke," Reynolds landed the lead role in the spaghetti Western "Navajo Joe" (1966), and his film career was off and running. A few years later — in 1972 — he became a huge star thanks to "Deliverance."

The above shot shows the more commonly seen south end of the Fury Barn, along with part of the Fury Corral.

The above picture of a more stripped-down Burt — showing off his formidable biceps — was part of the same photo shoot as the other shots. To my eye the setting is still in the vicinity of the Fury Set, based once again on Cactus Hill in the background. Reynolds frequently appeared shirtless on "Gunsmoke," or at least with bare arms, and my guess is they had him gradually peel off his clothes as the shoot went on to get him closer to the "real" Quint.

In another promo shot showing off Reynolds' arms, we can see that he's still wearing the wristband, further evidence that it's all the same shoot. I wish I could tell you I know that rock — which can also be seen in the shot above this one. Most of the rocks in that area are still around, but it's really hard to get access to them now because they tend to be in people's back yards. I can say that this rock is consistent with some of the known features of the Fury Set area.

The "Gunsmoke" gang — including Burt Reynolds as Quint

Despite the decision to do the promo shoot at Iverson, "Gunsmoke" did not shoot at the ranch during the seasons Reynolds was on the show. The series taped quite a few episodes there during other seasons — about 30 episodes in all. You can click here to see some other blog entries about "Gunsmoke" shoots at Iverson. The show aired from 1955 to 1975, setting various TV longevity records and amassing a whopping 635 total episodes — and included during that run were some memorable Iverson shoots.



Here is a clip of Burt Reynolds in his full fury on "Gunsmoke" — taken from the episode "The Bad One," which originally aired Jan. 26, 1963. The clip is shot in the studio and has nothing to do with Iverson, but it's good fun — even if most or all of the actual fighting was done by Burt's perennial wingman, Hal Needham.

For additional views of the Fury Barn, please click here to see a previous blog entry featuring the barn. The following links should point you to the Burt Reynolds seasons of "Gunsmoke" on Amazon, in case you're interested in owning them on DVD or Blu-ray:

Here's a music video from 40 years before MTV got started, shot at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif.

The clip below comes from the 1942 Charles Starrett B-Western "Pardon My Gun," and features the cowboy singing group Texas Jim Lewis and His Lone Star Cowboys. It's shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch, among a group of buildings called the Middle Iverson Ranch Set, also known as Halfway House. The song is "Sing Song Kitty." It's not in sync, but it makes up for it by being short!



The clip features a couple of the buildings that made up the ranch set — especially the main house. The early barn can also be seen in the background. Click here for more photos of the place in a detailed blog post focused on the Middle Iverson Ranch Set.

Behold the Window of the Gods — a fixture of movies going back to the silent era

"The Paleface" (1922)

Here's a screen shot from the Buster Keaton silent short "The Paleface" showing a couple of the lesser-known formations on the Iverson Movie Ranch. These beauties are found just north of Garden of the Gods, in an area I call the North Cluster. The actors sprinkled among the rocks are portraying Native Americans, as you may be able to tell or may have guessed from the title. The large rock at top right and the one behind it are still around, and from a different angle they form a sort of "window" — a crack, really, between two huge boulders (see first color photo, below). The proximity of this formation to Garden of the Gods led to its being called Window of the Gods, at least in my own research. The rocks seen in the foreground — including a partially visible Man in the Moon at top left — no longer exist.

"Rocky Mountain Rangers" (1940)

Another look at the same group, this time from Republic's Three Mesquiteers B-Western "Rocky Mountain Rangers" and from much farther back, showing Elders Peak, above Chatsworth Park, in the background — the highest point seen in this shot. Both of the above shots are essentially looking south. Most but not all of the main rock features seen in the center of the shot remain in place today. As mentioned above, Man in the Moon and the rest of the group in front are gone, having given way to development. The area where the riders appear is occupied by condos now.

This is the Man in the Moon part from the above shot, near the front of the group of rocks at the center of the photo. But I have a much better shot of it elsewhere on the blog. Click here to see that blog entry, which is all about Man in the Moon.

"Bullets for Rustlers" (1940)

Here's the angle that got me thinking about the Window of the Gods group for the first time in a while. It's from Columbia's "Bullets for Rustlers," a Charles Starrett B-Western that also stars Lorna Gray — known for her tour de force performance as the evil Vultura in the 1942 Republic serial "The Perils of Nyoka." The giant clump of rocks at top left, consisting of three big sandstone boulders, is Window of the Gods again, from a much different angle, kind of looking northwest. It's hard to be precise about the directions.

Window of the Gods today

Behold the Window of the Gods, as it survives to this day — "kind of" looking west.

Here's a look at those same three big boulders in modern times, from yet another angle ... along with a glimpse of a gray-haired movie location researcher. The "window," as seen in the shot above this one, would be between the rock at the far right and the one next to it, looking out between them to the right. This view is "kind of" looking south again.

For those of you who might be into this sort of thing, the image up above from "Bullets for Rustlers" is full of mysterious and elusive "rock faces." Try these next couple on for size ... and for the more serious researchers out there, feel free to skip this part. I just figure it can't hurt. Who among us has never once enjoyed seeing faces in the clouds and so forth? This is kind of like that.

This one's as good an example as any. I see a big-brained alien with a number of possible faces at lower left, nearly all of them portraying some degree of malicious intent ... but your mileage may vary.

Part of that alien head intrudes again here, in the top right corner, but focus on the center and the lower left. I don't know, I keep seeing faces here, including one pretty good cyclops, but they tend to shift around.

"Riders of the Badlands" (1941): Old pro cinematographer Benjamin Kline showcases the Upper Iverson

"Riders of the Badlands," a 1941 Columbia B-Western starring Charles Starrett and Russell Hayden, contains some fine cinematic images of the Iverson Movie Ranch. The movie was shot by Benjamin Kline, who was a regular at Iverson in the B-movie era — both as a cinematographer and as a director. Kline was DP on this one, with Howard Bretherton directing. Here are a few sample shots, all filmed on the Upper Iverson.

Nothing flashy here — just a nicely composed shot of a stagecoach at speed, filmed looking west. The riders have broken off part of the team and are making a getaway. In the background, the flat area on the other side of the trees is the neighboring Brandeis Ranch, which was also a filming location for a few years in the 1930s and 1940s. Visible in the foreground and beyond the stage are a number of the chase roads and insert roads that ran parallel to each other to enable the camera car to track the movement of the horses, wagons and stagecoaches being filmed.

Another stagecoach shot, this one shows a couple of the Upper Iverson's native oak trees along with another corner of Brandeis Ranch in the background. Parallel chase roads can again be seen, along with the line of trees separating Brandeis and Iverson, directly in the center of the shot. The line of white dots visible against the line of trees is made up of the white tips of dark fenceposts supporting a nearly invisible fence between the two properties.

A portion of the line of trees separating Iverson Ranch and Brandeis Ranch included the double row of trees seen above, in the top left corner of the shot. This is a relatively rare view of that double line of trees, revealing a dirt road running between the tree rows. This little stretch of road ran north and south, culminating in a cluster of rocks, visible at the top left. Early in my Iverson research I began calling this formation Rocks Across the Way, as the rocks are usually seen in the distance, across the expanse of the Upper Iverson. These rocks have also been referred to as the Festival Rocks by some film historians, but in my own research the name Rocks Across the Way has stuck. By my designation, the cluster of rocks in the top left corner is Rocks Across the Way-West, and the clump seen at top right is Rocks Across the Way-East. Most of these rocks remain intact today, but now they're surrounded by a gated community of large estates.

Here's a shot that combines an impressive view of about 14 of those fencepost tops — the white dots at the top of the shot, along the left half — along with a peek up the road between the double line of trees, now near the top right corner. These aren't spectacular shots at first glance, but the Iverson features depicted in these scenes generally weren't filmed in a way that made it possible to discern any detail, and these unusual angles are quite revealing. Location researchers live for this stuff.

B-Western bad guy Charles "Blackie" King at Devil's Doorway, 1935

Here are a couple of nice screen shots from the 1935 Tom Mix serial "The Miracle Rider," featuring an actor who might have played bad guys more than anyone else in movie history, Charles King.

These shots are from a scene filmed on the Lower Iverson, with King seen here against some of the rocks that make up the Devil's Doorway cluster.

I really like these two shots. Charles "Blackie" King was in 400-plus movies, almost always as a baddie. If you want to see a great site about Charlie King, please click here.